Mental health patients getting wrong therapy

Mental health charity Mind has called on the NHS to “urgently address its shrinking mental health workforce”, after an audit of psychological services across England showed patients are routinely treated with non-NICE recommended therapy.

The audit, carried out by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, examined the care received by people with anxiety or depression who were referred to secondary mental health services.

These include mental health hospitals or community teams, which deal with severe or complex cases.

In North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, auditors discovered that 37 per cent of patients were receiving a type of therapy that was not the one recommended for their condition by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which issues guidance on treatment.

This was better than the 35 per cent average across England as a whole.

Joanne McDonnell, Director of Nursing and Governance at North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are committed to providing the most effective and appropriate psychological therapies for our patients, based on individual need.

“In addition to ongoing work being undertaken to improve recruitment and retention, we have also strengthened our professional leadership and psychological structures across the Trust.

“We are pleased that as a Trust, 70 per cent of therapists interviewed felt they were getting enough support from us to continue their professional development, which is above the national average.

“We are committed to making further improvements and offer a range of clinical training and development opportunities for our staff, to upskill them to deliver effective psychological therapies and continue to provide the best possible care for our patients.”

While the report said a number of factors could have influenced the figures – such as a patient having tried the recommended treatment before without success – it warned there was “a significant shortage of clinicians” trained in all the areas needed to deliver NICE-recommended therapies across the country.

Dr Esther Cohen-Tovee of the British Psychological Society, said a lack of staff meant services are often unable to provide the right interventions to everybody who could benefit from them.

She added: “The BPS has consistently pushed for mental health to be viewed with the same importance as physical health, and ensuring that more qualified psychologists and psychological therapists are trained and recruited across the NHS is key to that aim.”

​Of 12 therapists surveyed in the North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, seven (70%) thought they were getting enough support from the service to continue their professional development, compared to 67% nationally.

Charlotte Gill, policy and campaigns manager at Mind, said therapists need more support from the health system to help them provide quality care.

She said: “Asking for help for a mental health problem can be difficult, so it is crucial that when people do, they feel confident that their therapist has received the right training to be able to help them.

She added that the NHS must urgently address its shrinking mental health workforce, which is “driving an overall decline in the quality of care across the board”.

Auditors also discovered that 44% of therapists in England are delivering at least one kind of therapy they have no formal training in.

​Of the 12 therapists surveyed in the North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, ​two said they were providing treatment they were not trained in.

An NHS spokesman said: “The NHS is heavily investing in improving the training and upskilling of staff.

“There are 12 psychological professions in NHS commissioned healthcare and the ambition is to expand that workforce significantly over the next five years.”